


We'll Create Our Own Purpose

by SansPeridot



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Monsters, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-11 22:46:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13534119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansPeridot/pseuds/SansPeridot
Summary: Peridot Kleinhardt is a wandering magician that's finally found what she's spent her whole life preparing for; the thing that her mother told her would save the world. The only problem is: she doesn't find it in time. So, she'll just have to figure things out on her own like always. Luckily for her though, for the first time in her life she won't have to do it alone.





	1. Everyone Found What They Were Looking For

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't decided if this will only be two chapters or if I'll expand it into something longer. If you, the person reading this right now, want this to continue... Then just let me know and I'll make it happen.
> 
> If not, then please enjoy this little bit of fantasy I cooked up while I was bored.

The mountain forgot that it had ever been alive.

It had been quiet for so long that people had forgotten what it sounded like. They’d forgotten the smell of its voice and the rumble of its words. Generations came and went, kingdoms rose and fell whether by their own hand or by the hands of their enemies, but the mountain remained ever silent. Legends left behind in scraps of stone and frayed scrolls so old that hardly anyone could decipher them spoke of something inside that mountain. Perhaps at some point when the mountain’s voice still rang out across the vast plains of dust and stone surrounding it, someone might have known what it was. They might have remembered.

The thing at the mountain’s heart.

In the current day and age, there was only one person left in that corner of the world with any real idea of what slept within that ancient tower of earth. However, that didn’t stop others from forming their own half-baked assumptions and starry eyed dreams when the mountain finally awoke. With a roar fit to sunder the sky itself, the nearby kingdoms and their people were racked with fear as the mountain finally spoke once again, but the only one who knew was still too young to answer it.

That did nothing to stop the swarms of adventurers, merchants, bandits, royalty and peasants alike who were drawn to the mountain like so many moths to a flame. The whispers of riches, of a benevolent god, or wellsprings of magic fit to give one the power to conquer the world were far too sweet to be ignored.

It took several days for the first of them to reach the mountain, isolated as it was, but it only took a single hour for them all to perish. For all of the warriors, mages, tacticians and tools that the first group brought with them in their quest to claim the mountain’s treasure, they all amounted to mere drops of water against the mighty flame that enticed them. 

Despite having a million guesses as to what lay within the mountain’s bosom; the moths had known nothing of the thing that awaited them at its entrance. 

\- - - - -

The noblewoman who managed to reach the mountain first, through sweet lies and poisoned promises, felt victorious before even arriving at the entrance. Her gathered army had dwindled considerably during the journey there, but still contained a force strong enough to topple a small nation if she’d been so inclined to try. As she did her best to shield her delicate brow from the sun’s cruelty, she called over the man who had sparked her interest in this undertaking in the first place.

“Jinn, report!”

“Yes, my queen.”

The man in question rode to the noblewoman’s left, on a beast of burden as hulking as its rider was deceitful. His sullen eyes hidden behind glasses he claimed were necessary due to poor vision, but had never been removed regardless of the situation. A flick of the wrist produced a series of documents he expertly handled, in spite of his mount’s less than gentle movements. Jinn scanned the papers for the umpteenth time, his attempt at appeasing his current mistress’ impatience nothing more than an act at this point. After all, he’d already memorized their contents long before their departure.

“According to this, we should soon be able to observe the doorway into the mountain itself. Have your men look for anything that looks out of the ordinary, my queen, and we should find our prize by sundown.”

The noblewoman scoffed at her advisor’s words, his suggestion sounding suspiciously close to an order. That was something she would be keen on repaying once he outlived his usefulness.

“Very well, but your information had best be accurate. If we suffer any further delays, then I shouldn’t have need to remind you of what will happen.”

Jinn hid his fear admirably; his body betraying nothing of the terror her thinly veiled threat inspired within him. Aquamarine had never been one for subtlety during her reign as acting Queen. The number of summary executions performed under her rule dwarfing those of any predecessor by such a margin that her people had begun referring to her as “Bloody Aquamarine”. Never openly, mind you. With the exception of those that were already on or on their way to the chopping block, the majority of her subjects knew better. 

If only her parents had been so wise.

It took the better part of the afternoon to finally locate the doorway Jinn’s documents spoke of, but when they did it was a wonder they hadn’t seen it straight away. That particular section of the mountain’s base stood out for a number of reasons, the least of which was the abundant flora flourishing amidst a sea of barren ground. A veritable rainbow of flowers served as a beacon to Queen Aquamarine’s scouts and in this dense overgrowth of plants they discovered an entryway into the mountain seemingly made for giants instead of people. A set of enormous, pink crystalline double doors were set into the otherwise bleak stone of the mountain, but that wasn’t the most shocking thing the scouts reported back.

They had observed someone seemingly standing guard at those doors.

“WHAT?! Someone already beat us here?!!!?”

Queen Aquamarine was instantly furious and rightfully so. She had used every last ounce of her influence, every drop of her wealth and the most filthy of hidden secrets to ensure she would be the first one here after the mountain’s violent awakening. Rivals had been silenced, allies had been paid off and everyone else had been tricked into thinking she was on a diplomatic journey to the east. It hardly mattered that the remainder of her army would be all she had left once the dust settled because if she was right, then the thing inside the mountain would be worth all of it and more.

Much more.

“UNACCEPTABLE!!!!”

The diminutive queen stomped her feet viciously, her temper flaring even hotter than the infernal sun she’d been forced to endure for the journey here. Her royal transport slightly shook from the force of it, the artisan vehicle having been made for looks instead of sturdiness. Aquamarine turned to Jinn, the replacement commander of her forces ever since the previous commander made one too many “suggestions” that they abandon this wild goose chase and return home.

“You. You will lead my forces to that entrance. You will remove anyone foolish enough to stand in the way. You will get those doors open and you will find the treasure you promised me or else I will find a way to keep you alive long enough so you can feel me flay every inch of flesh from your body before I sand down your bones to the marrow. Is. That. CLEAR?!”

Jinn swallowed a retort, the sudden feeling of being in the jaws of a hungry snake far too real to ignore. Instead, he merely nodded before gathering the forces provided to him. They had over five hundred soldiers, two hundred mages and almost an additional one hundred shapeshifters of varying species remaining in their ranks. Each and every one of them an accomplished member of Queen Aquamarine’s undefeated military; having been the victors of enough battles to mark them all expert veterans of war.

Whoever it was that had reached the mountain before them; they would be deeply sorry they hadn’t left sooner.

\- - - - -

The first soldiers saw the strange guard long before the rest. 

If they’d had the chance to describe the creature they saw, it would have proven rather difficult. None of the men approaching the doors were strangers to magic or the supernatural. They’d seen their fair share of things that common folk could only write stories or songs about. However, not a single one of them had expected to find something quite like this.

The enigmatic guard of the crystal doors sat on a moss covered bolder directly in the path of Aquamarine’s army. Several colorful songbirds rested at various places on the guard’s motionless form, content to rest in the sun. Even sitting, the guard was well over eight feet tall and imposing enough to flag even the bravest soldiers’ courage. As the first twenty warriors drew near, the guard regarded them with a casual disinterest that would have been insulting to most, if they’d had the frame of mind to feel insulted. 

It had the shape of a woman, but wasn’t comprised of flesh. Instead, the guard’s “skin” twinkled and shone with a luster reserved only for the most precious of stones. Stripes of dark orange crossed its body in bands that contrasted with the golden yellow that made up the rest of it. Its hair, if you could even call it that, stood completely still on the guard’s head. A veritable crown of silvery white that reached down past its shoulders.

Eyes blacker than midnight coal flickered towards the advancing forces as the guard slowly stood and, in doing so, revealed its true height as the songbirds rapidly fled in a swarm of chirping and scattered feathers. 

[Holy gods, that thing must be over twelve feet tall!] Was the only thought the first soldier could muster before the guard pulled out their weapon from its resting place within the earth behind the boulder. A shimmering greatsword gleaming with an otherworldly aura, dwarfed only in significance by how the weapon itself was almost as large as the one wielding it. The sight of it alone was enough to halt the soldiers in their tracks. 

The guard grinned at their hesitation and spoke the only words it had ever needed.

“Turn back now or die.”

Their response came in the form of a ball of fiery magic that promptly exploded against the guardian’s body. A war cry was let loose from every soldier’s lips and together they raised their weapons in challenge as they all charged forwards. Each and every one of them blazing with the thrill of conflict and thoughts of the blood soaked victories that were yet to greet them.

They never stood a chance.

\- - - - -

[One Hour Later]

Queen Aquamarine was consumed by disbelief. Her army, her plans, her ambitions… They were all gone. Her forces had surged forwards towards the entrance of the mountain and her confidence couldn’t have been more absolute. Never before had she lost a conflict, never before had she been beaten and never before had she ever run from an enemy.

Until now.

Her world lay shattered into pieces that, even now, dried up into the earth. They were all gone, even Jinn. The fool had shown his true colors at the end, screaming something about being the only one who deserved to control whatever lay within the mountain’s heart as he pulled an outlawed artifact from his robes. The guard had only needed a single swing of its massive weapon to silence Jinn’s insane cries, his forbidden tools no match for this force of nature. As Aquamarine’s warriors, mages and feral shifters alike had been effortlessly butchered by the seemingly invincible guardian of the mountain, those farthest from the frontlines had begun fleeing.

Of course, Aquamarine had been able to do little about that given her own situation. Her royal transport had been toppled over partway through the battle from one of the many earth rending blows the guardian delivered to her army; the beautifully handcrafted wood torn asunder as she’d fallen to the ground. All of her warriors too focused on trying to survive to give a single thought to their fallen Queen. 

The sounds of battle had long since passed, silent proof of Aquamarine’s failure and utter defeat.

The only noise she could discern now was the steadily fading beat of her own heart. Glancing down at her side, the former queen regarded the splintered piece of wood lodged in her belly with disdain. Killed not by the ruthless hands of a rival empress or by the poisoned blade of her own subjects, she was instead meant to die as mere collateral in a battle she should have never started. Pierced by a bit of debris from the gaudy transport she couldn’t even remembering asking to be made.

Her vision gently darkened as her blood ebbed away into the dirt and a sudden thought struck her as the numbness in her fingers began working its way towards her head.

Memories of her parents.

Sunlight splashed recollections of days long since abandoned from when things had been better… simpler. The man with wrinkles left from his tireless smile she had once called “daddy” flashed disjointedly as her eyes grew hot and wet. The woman with hair so soft that Aquamarine had always demanded to be the one to brush it in the morning before she left for her royal studies that she had called “mommy”. The two that had brought her into this world and subsequently failed by allowing her be eventually become the monster her kingdom now knew her to be. The parricidal ruler of a kingdom that had grown fat on the blood of its neighbors.

Or had it been HER who had failed them?

Now the tears were free to flow down her cold, pale cheeks and the numbness followed in their wake. The light was gone now and the last thing Queen Aquamarine felt before she left this world was regret; her final thought a forgotten whisper in the dark with nobody left to even listen.

[…How… unsightly…]

\- - - - -

[Several Years Later]

“Augh! Is it so much to ask for there to NOT be sand in everything?!”

A lone figure in the vast wasteland surrounding the infamous mountain of the Western Kingdoms complained to the heavens above, expecting no answer. She was in quite the foul mood and for good reason.

“As if running out of food and water wasn’t bad enough, now I’m forced to stop every ten feet because I can FEEL my foot being sanded down to nothing!”

As the small wanderer stopped, she pulled off one of her scuffed boots and tipped it upside down to unleash a veritable tsunami of sand. The foot exposed in the boot’s absence was light green in color, a striking contrast to the otherwise pale skin comprising the rest of the wanderer’s body, with a slight twinkle sparking from its exposure to the beating sun overhead. True to her word though, the sole of the green limb looked somewhat worn down by the constant friction of the sand it was forced to share the boot’s interior with. Quickly, the wanderer pulled her boot back on and continued her trek towards the mountain.

She’d been traveling for weeks now, but of course the last bit of the journey just had to be the most difficult. After everything she’d overcome thus far, from lying wizards, to trolls and the worst snowstorm this part of the world had ever seen, she was NOT about to be stopped by some stupid sand! She was going to reach this stupid mountain and she was going to deal with the stupid thing inside it even if it killed her!

However, with every determined step she took, the wanderer felt her strength begin to wither a bit more under the sun’s glare. Now, she’d never been overly vain or narcissistic, but she was steadily growing convinced that her whole body would be cooked into leather by the intense heat at this rate. The mere thought of it grossed her out to no end. With desperation born from not wanting to look like a living set of cheap leather armor for the rest of her life, the wanderer pushed beyond her limits until she finally reached the foot of the legendary mountain. 

Sweat had ceased to drip from her small frame not too long ago, since her body had run out of moisture to give up, but still she pressed forwards. Even as her throat grew too dry to swallow and her brain came dangerously close to actually being cooked into something resembling a sunny side up egg, she continued walking. The wanderer paid no mind to the scorched earth, the arrow covered trees or the overabundance of abandoned weaponry left to waste away throughout the lush expanse at the mountain’s base. The remnants of countless battles fought and subsequently lost here were blocked out as her mind ignored everything in a vain attempt to stave off her own body’s warnings that she had brought herself to the breaking point. 

It was only when the wanderer laid her emerald eyes upon the mysterious crystalline doors and the nameless guardian that barred all entry into the mountain itself that her exhaustion caught up with her. While the wanderer swayed from side to side, her body finally failing her, the guardian spoke the only words it ever needed.

At least, the guardian tried to, but the wanderer’s body decided to give out partway through and collapse on the ground in a graceless heap.

“Turn back now or… Hey? Hey, are you okay?!”

Okay, so the guardian knew a FEW other words, but it wasn’t like she’d ever needed them before.


	2. Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone comes up short in their respective quests, but for some that bears greater consequences than others.
> 
> CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of drowning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to (somewhat) popular demand, the story continues! I apologize for how confusing some parts must seem right now, but trust me when I say that everything will be explained in due time. I can only hope you enjoy things until then. Thank you to everyone who has left kind words or shown support of any kind for the first chapter. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you all wanting more. Thanks again, and until next time~

She knew the sensation of drowning far too well for someone still alive.

A lot of people had their own ideas as to what it felt like; things they were often all too eager to share with everyone else. They seemed to think that drowning was a silent thing; that you simply sank down to the bottom as you ceased to be. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every single time it happened to her, it was always so... LOUD.

Her pulse would grow in sync with the painful burning of her body as it desperately tried to pump oxygen to the organs screaming for it. Holding back the urge to open her mouth to breathe was always the most difficult part. She wasn’t always able to do it though, so the feeling of liquid rushing into her nose and mouth became a vindictive and cruel contrast to the relieving air she so violently craved. Bubbles would exploded outwards and obscure the hands holding her down as her limbs used up the last vestiges of her energy to try and claw their way to the surface.

Only to be pushed back down again and again.

 

\- - - - -

 

With a start, the wanderer jolted upright as the remnants of her dream still clung to her.

Her face and upper body dripped with water, which her rational mind concluded was the cause for her most recent nightmare. Craning her neck, the wanderer saw the guardian looming over her with an expression almost bordering on concern in her pitch dark eyes. A small pond glittered in the sunlight behind them, which explained why the guardian even HAD water in the first place.

“Do you always do that when someone splashes you with water?”

The wanderer narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but didn’t answer. The guardian pointed back to the open expanse of wasteland that separated the mountain from everything else. 

“Well, if you’re done almost dying then hurry up and go back to wherever it is you came from. I’m not in the mood to kill someone that almost died before I even finished my warning.”

Having made her intent clear, the guardian moved to return back to the boulder she spent most of her time at. However, as she turned away, the wanderer spoke.

“Do you even know what’s inside?”

The guardian froze.

“Inside the mountain, I mean.”

After receiving no response, the wanderer continued speaking almost as if thinking out loud.

“It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. After all, I bet your instructions were just to prevent anyone, who indicated either physically or verbally, from entering the mountain. A guardian doesn’t have to know anything about what they’re protecting so long as they do their job correctly, right?”

The guardian slowly turned around as the lush scenery surrounding them grew oddly quiet. The fauna that called this place home knew what the air felt like before a fight and had long since decided to always be somewhere else when one happened. 

Today was no exception.

“...Who are you?”

The wanderer got to her feet, making a show of dusting off her clothing as she did so. Her long sleeved jacket ended at her wrists, but her hands remained hidden by dark leather gloves. A pair of oddly formal pants trailed down her short legs with the ends tucked into worn down boots. A quick twirl allowed the faded green cape hanging from her shoulders to untangle itself from the time spent laying down. No wonder this girl had almost died from the heat, she was dressed like an entertainer instead of an adventurer.

Once she was totally satisfied she was as presentable as she could be, given the circumstances, the wanderer grinned before bowing deeply.

“The Great and Lovable Peridot Kleinhardt, Magician Extraordinaire at your service.”

Drawing herself back to her full height of five feet three and a quarter inches, Peridot pointed at the guardian’s chest.

“And I’m the one that’s going to enter that mountain and save the world.”

The guardian couldn’t even call out a warning as the magic fueling her body roared to life with fury at Peridot’s declaration, a light pink haze draping itself over her senses. In an instant, her mind was forced into the role of a spectator as her body moved to carry out its singular purpose for existing. Just like every other time someone had tried to get past her, something welled up from deep inside her core and took control. The guardian hated feeling so helpless inside her own body, but had long since made an uneasy peace with it. 

The space Peridot had occupied not seconds earlier exploded into a shower of dirt and debris from the force of the guardian’s blow.

“Not too shabby, for a clod!”

Peridot’s voiced called out from behind her, the magician looking only mildly impressed with the results of the guardian’s initial strike. The guardian wasted no time in pursuing, further talk now impossible as her body moved independent from her thoughts. The guardian’s stony fists swung again and again, only to uselessly strike empty air as Peridot avoided every blow with a smug grin.

For all the frustration the guardian might have about being forced to forfeit control of her body while it defended the entrance to the mountain, she found herself oddly enthralled at the sight of Peridot’s movements. Every time the guardian’s fists seemed ready to connect, the magician slid around them by no more than a hair’s breadth.

[How is she so fast...? Nobody has ever lasted this long in close combat with me before.]

Thanks to the guardian’s ability to observe independently of her body’s movements, she noticed something about Peridot’s body. There was a slight… blur around the blonde girl’s edges; something akin to the heat distortions in the air above the burning sands of the wasteland. That odd aura always seemed to flare up right as the magician dodged, swirling around where the blows should be impacting, before vanishing again. 

Peridot narrowed her eyes, deciding that the time for defense had come to an end.

“Alright, I think that’s enough showboating. It’s time for the main event!”

The guardian was helpless to stop the magician as she ducked below the most recent strikes and placed both of her hands against the guardian’s gemstone body.

“It’s showtime!”

Suddenly an immense pressure built around the magician’s hands, causing the air near the point of contact to twist and warp with power. Immediately, the guardian’s vision went completely white and she could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet. The weightless feeling persisted for several seconds until her body crashed down into something. Getting back to her feet, the guardian knew her body was moving, still fruitlessly searching for its opponent despite the continued blindness, but couldn’t piece together what exactly the magician had done to her.

“Seeing stars? I can’t blame you, this IS me we’re talking about. However, hold your applause because it’s time for the next act!”

The guardian’s body lunged towards the sound of Peridot’s voice, but was forced back onto the ground as something immensely heavy collided with it and drove her down into the earth. Struggling proved useless as whatever pinned her down refused to budge no matter how fiercely she thrashed. As the guardian’s vision finally returned with excruciating slowness she was finally able to survey her condition.

Somehow the guardian’s body was now held down by several giant hands jutting out from the ground, somehow crafted from pure rock. 

She’d fought against countless mages during her time protecting the mountain, but she’d never seen a single person manipulate so much material alone before. Typically a lone mage could only control small amounts of their chosen element, but the sheer mass of the stone currently holding her down would be enough to construct a small castle!

“And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the show! Please, make sure you stop by on your way out for a chance to speak with the star of our show and have a wonderful evening!”

Peridot swung her upper body down in a deep bow once again as she removed an imaginary hat from her head as an extra flourish. With a look of smug satisfaction that could rival even the most arrogant nobles, the blonde magician turned heel and casually walked over to the crystalline doors. The guardian made every effort possible to stop her, but… her prison of earth would not permit it.

The guardian… had failed.

 

\- - - - -

 

Peridot couldn’t help but thoroughly examine her surroundings on the way to the pink doors now that she wasn’t about to die from heat exhaustion. The life growing outwards from the doorway seemed to practically thrum with a magic so subtle that she might have overlooked it if the greenery wasn’t so out of place. 

Flowers, trees, birds and small creatures of all kinds had somehow found a bastion in the middle of the mountain’s wasteland. Something else caught her eye as she drew ever closer to the doors though; a slight shimmer against the stone of a boulder sitting directly in front of them.

The remains of a massive claymore or greatsword of some sort lay in pieces all around the boulder. The blade must have been large indeed if the number of large fragments littering the ground were any indication of what it must have looked like whole. Like the plants surrounding her, Peridot could sense faint ripples of magic echoing off of the weapon’s broken remains.

Resolving to leave further investigations of the abnormal grove and its contents for later, Peridot turned to face the imposing doors. Despite being interconnected to the bland stone comprising the mountain’s bulk, the doorway itself possessed an intricate beauty reserved only for magical objects. Swirls of cloudy white splashed across the otherwise pristine pink crystal material and led an observer’s eyes over their surface in an almost intentional pattern. Shapes carved into it revealed something less like artwork and more akin to a giant magical symbol; a symbol that Peridot knew all too well.

The emblem of the Diamonds.

With both hands held out before her, Peridot recited the incantation her mother had spent years drilling into her head. No matter how much time passed since her mother’s death, Peridot could never forget the words even if she wanted to.

“Hear me, gateway to the Heart! I am the legacy of the Diamonds and you will heed my command! Open, so that the way may be cleared for Her return!”

Without ceremony or fanfare, the doorway silently swung open to reveal a soft pink glow beyond its threshold. An odd kind of satisfaction came on the heels of finally using the incantation she’d spent so long etching into her mind and body. At the very least now she could put THAT part of her life behind her. It was more than she could say for everything else.

Peridot took a deep breath and stepped into the doorway’s pink light.

 

\- - - - -

 

The guardian could feel the doorway open, the silent swing of its hinges a cacophony of despair that reverberated throughout her form until she felt sure she would break. However, just as slight cracks began to form on the surface of her body, the sensation passed. 

What happened next almost made her wish that the noise would come back though. The magic animating her began to leak out through the newly created cracks; sparkling streams of pink power that swam around her on lazy currents of air before slowly fading away.

The guardian was dying.

 

\- - - - -

 

Peridot strode confidently through the warm embrace of the light until she found herself standing before a giant tower of pink crystal. A cursory check of her surroundings revealed very little. Somehow, she was still in a nebulous pink void with no ceiling, floor or walls, but the crystalline tower loomed over her all the same. A few more steps was all it took for Peridot to get close enough to make out a vague silhouette encased deep in the pink tower. 

This is what she’d spent her whole life trying to find, trying to reach.

Placing a hand onto the crystal’s surface allowed the magic pulsing in Peridot’s veins to reach out and touch the mind of the one hidden within. The magician’s brow furrowed in concentration, her breathing remaining steady so as not to interrupt the process. Seconds melted into minutes as Peridot searched and searched for the spark of life, the hidden flame all living things carried inside them.

[Where is it?]

Frowning, Peridot chose to take a risk and poured even more power into the crystal in an attempt to refine her search. As the minutes kept piling up she felt panic bubble up from her stomach. 

This was wrong. 

This was all wrong!

“What happened?! This isn’t right! You’re supposed to wake up!”

Peridot’s breathing grew unsteady as her voice grew ever louder.

“They told me you would have all the answers! I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE!!!”

Gloved hands pounded on the side of the crystal tower, their owner unable to control her frustration any longer. A single angry tear slid down Peridot’s cheek before she pulled herself back together. She’d always nursed the secret fear that this might happen, but being forced to accept it was still far too bitter for her to ignore. If she’d known of a way to transfer her own life over to the shadow in the crystal, then Peridot wouldn’t have hesitated even for a moment to use it. That was merely wishful thinking though... It was hopeless.

The real hero, the one who was supposed to save the world, was dead.

How had it come to this…?

Something must have gone wrong. Peridot had no idea when it could’ve happened, but at some point the mountain had transformed from a hiding place to a well guarded grave. The fact that the guardian of this place had still been functioning when Peridot had arrived seemed an impossibility now. How in the world had that thing been able to keep moving after its creator had expired?

Shaking her head, Peridot indulged in one final check to see if there was something, ANYTHING, still sleeping inside the crystal tower. Each beat of her heart served as a counterpart to the waves of magic she forced into the crystal structure.

One…

Two…

Three…

… … … 

 

Nothing. 

Everything was still. 

Everything inside the mountain was dead.

 

\- - - - -

 

When Peridot finally exited the mountain, the sunlight no longer felt warm. 

Her whole body was suffused in a helpless chill that sunk all the way down to her bones. As the blonde magician walked back to where she had left the guardian, she immediately realized something was wrong. There were traces of magic leaking out from the guardian’s restrained form. Magic that, as far as Peridot’s extensive knowledge of artificial constructs went, should only be expelled if the subject in question was about to permanently deactivate.

The magician’s body moved on instinct, despite logic screaming at her to stop before she did something incredibly foolish.

In moments, Peridot dismissed the earthen hands she’d call up earlier and knelt next to the guardian’s prone form. The guardian’s midnight eyes were dotted with specks of pink as the magic continued forcing itself out of her body. Surveying the extent of the damage revealed that something catastrophic had happened to the guardian’s core and if nothing was done to repair it she would die the moment the last of the magic escaped her body.

[Okay. Constructs can’t function unless their core has enough power, so all I have to do is manually jump start her core with enough magic and reverse the damage. Theoretically, this shouldn’t be too difficult because of how familiar I am with them, but if it rejects my magic then the feedback could be enough to burn me to a crisp...]

Peridot struggled with the possible consequences of what she was about to do, but the memory of the silhouette in its crystalline coffin chased any remaining doubts away. 

She was NOT going to let anyone else die, not when there was still something she could do to save them. Even if she’d failed, even if the world was doomed anyway now that its hero was nothing more than a corpse embalmed in pink stone... Peridot would never be able to live with herself if she abandoned the life fading in front of her.

Regardless of whether that life had tried to kill her or not.

So, with a deep breath to steady herself, Peridot pulled off her left glove to reveal the light green hand hidden underneath. She placed it on the guardian’s cracked body and felt it slowly sink in as her magic rushed towards the point of contact. Peridot’s arm radiated an almost blinding emerald light as the limb reached inside and touched the guardian’s core.

[So far, so good. It doesn’t seem like the vessel is trying to prevent me from-]

Words rushed up through her arm before Peridot could even try to shut them out.

[P R O T E C T] [D E S T R O Y] [W A R N] [F I G H T] [G U A R D] [K I L L]

As Peridot used every bit of power at her command to push past the overflowing bits of residual magic left deep inside the guardian’s body, she felt something else rise up to meet her magic’s touch. While the words so far had all been a pink, stinging color that burned the eyes, the something else was… a soft orange and yellow. 

It weakly clung to the guardian’s core and cried out with a voice so weak that Peridot could barely hear it.

[S a v e … M e ...]

With a flash of white light, Peridot’s magic found purchase within the now empty places in the guardian’s form. 

The guardian’s body erratically pulsed with the piercing green light filling it for several moments until steadying and finally resuming something that mirrored a human heartbeat. As sweat dripped off the now re-exhausted magician’s forehead, Peridot carefully removed her arm from the guardian’s body and watched as it transformed in response to the newly transplanted magic.

The guardian’s gemstone skin softened and smoothed out until it resembled flesh; albeit with scattered spots where the hints of the old stone armor still remained. The cracks had all but disappeared even though the guardian’s reddish stripes still streaked across much of her body. Her hair separated into individual strands as it became subject to the wind’s whims and blew in the desert breeze. However, the most noticeable change was to her overall size. Where the guardian had previously towered at close to twelve feet in height, she now slowly shrank until she couldn’t be any taller than six and a half feet at most.

Peridot let herself fall backwards as the changes seemed to finish manifesting themselves. Another quick check revealed everything to be in significantly better shape than before, but something was still off…

With a furious reddening of her cheeks, Peridot realized the guardian’s body now looked much more human, but the previously unimportant lack of clothing had swiftly become VERY apparent. Averting her eyes, Peridot swept the cape off her body and carefully laid it on top of the still motionless guardian. Now somewhat covered by the magician’s accessory, Peridot covered her face in her hands before looking up into the sky. The vast expanse of blue visible through her mix of gloved and light green fingers offered little solace to the now lost magician.

What in the world was she supposed to do now...?


End file.
